| Culzie | Date: Tuesday, 2012-01-03, 8:42 PM | Message # 1 |
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| This was written by a Dublin women called Katharine Tynan back. When she mentions the border it must be the traditions and culture of Ulster she writes of,as the political border didn't exist when this was written. She paints a picture of a people who are Scots in behaviour and outlook but also compares them with their 'Lancashire brothers'
That north-east corner of Ireland which no Celt looks upon as Ireland at all. In speech, in character, in looks, the people become Scotch and not Irish. One has crossed the border and Celtic Ireland is left behind.
there is nothing Irish about north-east Ulster except the country itself.
like his Scotch progenitors, he stands by the Bible. There is as much Bible-reading in the fine red-brick mansions of Belfast as there is in Scotland.
the Belfast man has the Scottish love of education. He has many of the homespun Scottish virtues, and much less than the Scottish love of money.
Finn, the Irish giant, invited a Scotch giant over to fight him... I believe that the Scottish giant came and stayed. You see his children all over North-East Ulster
He is blunt and brusque in his speech and manner,and so not unlike his Lancashire brother
http://www.archive.org/stream....2up
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| Culzie | Date: Thursday, 2012-03-22, 10:24 PM | Message # 2 |
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| Although this is from a book published in 1953 it does show the difference between the two countries and compares them. Gives a good account of why unionists have to take the line they do and how Eire is always aggressor towards Ulster.
Comparative Freedom
Not the least obstacle to a settlement is the type of ''comparision'' made in anti-Partition propaganda between the North and the South. The Southern legend on this subject runs somewhat as follows: In the South,the Protestants are not persecuted at all,and there is practically no job discrimination; they are given their full proportionate share of school funds,and their civil liberties are completely protected;their treatment is a magnificent demonstration of Catholic good faith. But in the North - this thesis continues - the Catholic minority is persecuted by means of a Special Powers Act which permits jailing without trial and suppression of public meetings; there is widespread discrimination in goverment appointments,and financial discrimination against Catholic schools.
This type of propaganda omits the most important aspect of the comparative story. The Protestants of the South are not disloyal to the Southern regime,whereas the Northern Catholics are open and enthusiastic traitors to the Northern regime,who have never ceased,since the birth of the goverment in 1921,to organize and agitate for its transfer to Dublin rule. These Catholic dissenters are suffering some discrimination in the North,but the discrimination primarily exists not because they are Catholics but because,being Catholics,they are affiliated with a movement which is specifically treasonable and which has behind it a long history of violence and insurrection. When Northern Catholics are penalized for this treason,they plead that they are being subjected to ''religious persecution.'' This ''religious persecution,'' when looked at from another angle,is self-defence by a non-Catholic goverment determined to maintain self-determination against alien agression. It is no more fair to describe the total Partition situation in terms of exclusively religious persecution than it is to epitomize in such terms the battle between Israel and the Arabs,or between Pakistan and India. Religion lies at the base of the struggle in each case,but the battle has gone far beyond the stage of mere religious discrimination and becomes a struggle for survival between bona-fide nations.
Actually,there is no religious discrimination as such by the Northern regime today,and there are no restrictions on full religious activity. Catholic churches,Catholic Schools,Catholic social organizations,and Catholic newspapers are guaranteed the full privileges of British freedom. But when Catholic citizens with the backing of their Church deny the jurisdiction of the goverment that maintains this freedom,and openly attempt to overthrow it,they are sometimes treated as enemy aliens. This treatment is quite conventional and would be adopted by any democratic majority in parallel circumstances.
It should also be pointed out that,while there is complete freedom for Protestants in the South,that freedom is conditional on Protestant passivity. Those Protestants who hold office are co-operators with the Southern regime,not basic opponents. It is unthinkable that the present civil liberty for Protestant activity would continue if a strong Protestant party,with the offical sanction of Protestant church bodies,challenged the Republic's life and continuously agitated for a return to British rule. Such a disloyal political movement would undoubtedly be suppressed either by the Southern goverment itself or by mob violence.
The month of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth,June 1953, afforded a striking contrast in degree of civil liberty in the North and in the South. When it was announced that coronation films were to be exhibited in Dublin, theatre owners were swamped with threats of violence. Although the goverment nominally protested against these threats,the Commissioner of the Civic Guards declared that it was probable that the exhibition of the films would cause organized protests which would result in damage to theatres and create panic. The coronation films were never shown except in Protestant private halls, and even the televised coronation ceremony was blocked by threats of violence. The editor of the 'Irish Times' asked mournfully; ''Are we living in a civilised country, where the law protects everybody or are we not? It is a grim and sorry prospect. Great men have died for Irish freedom; they did not die for the blackguardism that battens on poltroonery.''
In Belfast, meanwhile, on June 14 1953, 25,000 nationalists assembled to dedicate a Roger Casement Gaelic Park and stadium,and to hear eulogies of the nationalist patriot who was hanged for treason in 1916 after his efforts to bring German troops into Ireland. The roads approaching the stadium were decorated with Irish tricolours and papal flags,and Cardinal D'Alton in dedicating the park, declared that Roger Casement ''was one of Ireland's noblest sons, who willingly made the supreme sacrifice for his country.'' The ceremonies were not disturbed. Later Prime Minister De Valera crossed the border and attended other ceremonies at the park without being molested in any way.
No parallel parade or demonstration, displaying the Union Jack, could proceed for a single street in any city of the South without bloodshed. South of the border today, there is, in fact, no church, no newspaper, no political party, no labour organization, no fraternal order, no language movement which challenges the right of the Nationalists to rule. Stormont is safely British by a margin of about 2 to 1 - and by a perfectly honest count. There is no more chance that this regional parliament will vote for merger with the South than there is that the Ottawa parliament will vote for the annexation of Canada to the United States.
The Catholic nationalists do not consider such a policy as interference with Northern affairs, since they claim that the North really belongs to the Republic by moral right and that the only foreign intervention to be condemned in Ulster is that of Great Britain.
For a parallel to such a situation one would have to imagine the Constitution of the United States asserting an offical claim to Canada, regardless of the majority vote of the Canadian people, and announcing that Canada's independence would be acknowledged only for the time being, pending final and legal absorption by the United States. Add to this hypothetical parallel the assumption that one-third of the people of Canada were organized into a pro-America political party functioning on Canadian soil and proclaiming exclusive and complete loyalty to the United States, and you have the reason for Northern bitterness on the border issue
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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